Deconstructing The Engine Rebuild

The 428 engine in my ’66 Country Squire wagon is fading.

The 428 engine in my ’66 Country Squire wagon is fading. It runs weak oil pressure, acts sluggish, gets moody about starting when hot — or cold. On short trips to town you can expect to burn a quarter-tank of fuel. Carry oil with you, because you’ll need to add a quart or two so often that oil changes become ongoing, not something done at intervals. It shows all the signs. My engine needs a rebuild.

Now what? Where do you go for an engine rebuild today? Think about it. When muscle cars roamed the landscape, lots of bigger auto parts stores used to have machine shops right on site. Just drop off your crud-caked, oil-gushing, worn-out engine and they could handle the disassembly, hot tanking, decking, align bore/hone, crank turning, cam bearing, and freeze plug install right there on the premises. Well, that’s changed. Auto parts stores have consolidated into a handful of large chains, and they like to sell high-volume, high-margin items. Stores today are fairly small. Why have a big room full of expensive machines like lathes and mills that require operator skill but generate relatively small revenue per square foot when you can have a Coke cooler that the route man stocks and a bin of $2.99 Chinese tools?

But maybe I’m coming down too hard on the auto parts stores. Fact is, there’s a lot less demand for engine rebuilding these days. Metallurgy and computer design have improved engine durability to where they routinely rack up 200,000 miles or more. By that time, the body and suspension are probably worn out, and replacing the car makes more sense than extending its life with an engine rebuild.

Your hub for horsepower
Get first access to hit shows like Roadkill and Dirt Every Day

For those who need a fresh engine, an old-school rebuild is also less of an option given the number of simpler alternatives. Crate engines have huge appeal. They’re factory fresh, with the latest cam design and valvetrain features, a horsepower number that’s usually pretty impressive, all in an easy-to-ship, ready-to-install package. The crate engine customer won’t need a rebuild. Remember when Sears used to sell reman short-blocks and long-blocks in its catalog?

With the explosion of the Web, it’s easy to find a donor engine on Craigslist to replace a failed engine. That’s another ex-customer for the rebuilding industry.

Big commercial builders put another big dent in the traditional rebuilder market. Foremost among these is Jasper in Jasper, Indiana. Did you know it offers a numbers-matching program to custom-rebuild your original numbers-matching components? Chalk up one more guy who won’t be making the local machine shop’s phone ring.

So it’s no surprise that speed shops and auto parts stores don’t spend big to supply services that few want.

Rebuilding old muscle car engines has now become the domain of a handful of dedicated aces. They know the fine points that the old machine shop guys used to know — that a seal will last longer and seal better if it’s slightly rotated, that corrosion likes to hide in certain corners of the water jacket, that coating the back of the freeze plug prevents premature rustout.

A good rebuild, from a seasoned specialist who really knows that particular engine, is not a lost art, but it’s an art that’s become a lot harder to find. As with tuning carburetors and gapping points, fewer people are capable of those skills because fewer people need them. Original paperwork is one of the tiers of value — a car with paper is worth more than the same car without. I think it stands to reason that a rebuild by one of the aforementioned aces who are in increasingly short supply, on a car that really runs sharp, will become an element of additional value.

The engine rebuild, a term once thrown around very casually, has become a more highly specialized procedure, performed by elders who know the ropes, not greenhorns. With critical skills — say, paint and body — there’s paint that covers the body, and there’s paint that looks 10 feet deep and glossy like glass. So, too, the engine rebuild: There’s an engine rebuild that runs, and there’s an engine rebuild that runs better than the rest, starts easy, doesn’t leak, and will hold up under hundreds of road trips and dragstrip passes.

“Engine whisperers” who can do that level of superior work are a vanishing breed. Take yours to lunch.